As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.2For he says,

“At an acceptable time I have listened to you,

and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”

See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!3We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,4but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,5beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;6by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love,7truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;8in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true;9as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed;10as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

11 We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you.12There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours.13In return—I speak as to children—open wide your hearts also.

The Temple of the Living God

14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and
darkness?15What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever?16What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will live in them and walk among them,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

17

Therefore come out from them,

and be separate from them, says the Lord,

and touch nothing unclean;

then I will welcome you,

18

and I will be your father,

and you shall be my sons and daughters,

says the Lord Almighty.”

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.

8.By honor and dishonor This is no slight test for subjecting a man to trial, for to a man of a noble spirit nothing is more unpleasant, than to incur disgrace. Hence we may observe in all histories, that there have been few men of heroism that have not fallen back, on being irritated by insults.
594594 “Il y en a eu bien peu, qui estans irritez des iniures et mauuais traittemens que on leur faisoit, ne se soyent descouragez, et n’ayent laissez leur train de vertu;” — “There have been very few of them, who have not, on being irritated by injuries and bad treatment shown them, felt discouraged, and left off their virtuous career.”
Hence it is indicative of a mind well established in virtue, not to be moved away from one’s course by any disgrace that may be incurred — a rare virtue, but one without which you cannot show that you are a servant of God. We must, it is true, have a regard to good character, but it must be only in so far as the edification of our brethren requires it, and in such a way as not to be dependent on reports
595595 “Du bruit qu’on fera courir de nous;” — “On reports that may be circulated against us.”
— nay more, so as to maintain in the same even course in honor and in dishonor. For God allows us to be tried even by the slander of wicked men, with the view of trying us,
596596 “Voulant essayer si nous cheminons droit settlement pour l’amour de luy, sans cercher autre recompense;” — “Wishing to try whether we walk aright, purely from love to Him, without seeking any other reward.”
whether we act uprightly from disinterested motives;
597597 “Gratuito;” — “gratuitously.” — There can be no doubt, that Calvln has here in his eye Job 1:9.
“Doth Job fear God for nought?” The Hebrew word החנים (hachinnam,) is rendered in the Septuagint δωρεὰν — gratuitously
for if one is drawn aside from duty by the ingratitude of men, that man shows that he had not his eye directed to God alone. As then we see that Paul was exposed to infamy and insults, and yet did not on that account stop short, but held forward with undaunted courage, and broke through every impediment so as to reach the goal,
598598 “Mesme faisant violence ... tous empeschemens, est venu, comme par force, jusques au bout;” — “Even breaking violently through all impediments, came, as it were, by fource to the goal.”
let us not give way, if the same thing should befall us.

As deceivers Here he relates, not simply in what estimation he was held by the wicked and those that were without, (1 Corinthians 5:12,) but also what views were entertained of him by those that were
within. Now let every one consider with himself, how unseemly was the ingratitude of the Corinthians, and how great was his magnanimity in struggling forward, in spite of such formidable obstacles. By indirect representations, however, he sharply reproves their perverse judgment, when he says that he lives and is joyful, while they despised him as
one that was dead and overwhelmed with grief. He reproaches them, also, with ingratitude, when he says, that he made many rich, while he was contemned on account of his poverty. For they were of the number of those whom he enriched by his wealth: nay more, all of them to a man were under obligations to him on many accounts. Thus he said previously, by way of irony, that he was unknown, while at
the same time the fruit of his labor was everywhere known and celebrated. But how cruel to despise the poverty of the man who supplies you
599599 “Qui to fournit et enrichit par son abundance;” — “Who furnishes and enriches thee by his abundance.”
from his abundance! He means spiritual riches, which ought to be much more esteemed than earthly.

594
“Il y en a eu bien peu, qui estans irritez des iniures et mauuais traittemens que on leur faisoit, ne se soyent descouragez, et n’ayent laissez leur train de vertu;” — “There have been very few of them, who have not, on being irritated by injuries and bad treatment shown them, felt discouraged, and left off their virtuous career.”

597
“Gratuito;” — “gratuitously.” — There can be no doubt, that Calvln has here in his eye Job 1:9. “Doth Job fear God for nought?” The Hebrew word החנים (hachinnam,) is rendered in the Septuagint δωρεὰν — gratuitously